Introducing Global Health: Current and Future Trends - MScGH 2025-2027

Course Director:

Prof Stéphanie Dagron

Co-director  

Dr. Rafael Ruiz de Castañeda

Workshop  Facilitator:

Lemlem Girmatsion

Lemlem.girmatsion@unige.ch

Attendance: Attendance is mandatory, and students are expected to actively participate and engage during the sessions.

Credits and grading: No credits issued

Description

 Today, there is no single agreed-upon definition of global health. In fact, defining global health is to be considered an ambitious endeavour since the world is constantly and rapidly changing, and these changes have profound implications for human, animal and planetary health.

 The first mention of the concept of “global health” is to be found in a report published in 1997 by the US Institute of Medicine (today the National Academy of Medicine) and according to which: “The world’s nations now have too much in common to consider health as merely a national issue. Instead, a new concept of “global health” is required to deal with health problems to transcend national boundaries, that may be influenced by circumstances or experiences in other countries, and that are best addressed by cooperative actions and solutions” (p. 11). In this definition, the two central elements are : the fact that health issues (or their root causes) transcend national boundaries and the necessity to collaborate between actors, disciplines and sectors to tackling these issues in a more systemic way

 Definitions of global health to be found in the literature agree on these two elements and go even further. For instance, definitions proposed at the beginning of the 21^st century and in reaction to the intensification of globalization, by Koplan et al. 2007 (global health is “an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide”) or Kickbusch 2010 (“those health issues that transcend national boundaries and governments and call for actions on the global forces that determine the health of people”). Discussions regarding the definition of global health  continue and are influenced by issues like climate change (Costello and al. 2009), sanitary emergencies and healthcare crisis, humanitarian crisis and migration,  armed conflicts and wars, , as well as the pressing need  for more equity (Marmot 2007; WHO Collaborating Center Georgetown Law 2023), gender equality (Gupta and al. 2019), social (Ruger 2020; Wolff 2012) and environmental (Stephens et al. 2008; UNDP 2022) justice, protection and promotion of human rights related to health (Mann 1994), sustainable development (Dagron 2022), decolonization (Abimbola et al 2021; Pratt 2023), etc.

 These efforts to define global health as a concept are accompanied by efforts to better understand global health as an academic discipline and to develop and improve education and training for future global health professionals. Global health education is addressed largely in the literature (Wernli et al. 2016) and involves the intervention of diverse scientific disciplines and expertise. The program of the Master of science in global health is developed based on this scientific literature.

The objectives of this course are twofold:

1)      Introduce students to the concept of global health

2)     Help develop essential skills required for success in the UNIGE’s MScGH as well as in a future career in global health

These objectives will be pursued through:

-          An introductory session (on September 16^th 2024) during which the different disciplines and courses will be presented and the concept of global health discussed

-          A Workshop Series offered during the first year throughout the fall and spring semesters to further discuss current trends in global health, improve students’ skills and introduce them to the Geneva global health environment

Literature

S. Abimbola et al, Addressing power asymmetries in global health: Imperatives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, PLOS Medicine 18(6): e1003667, https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003667

A. Costello et al., Managing the health effects of climate change, The Lancet Vol 373, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673609609351?via%3Dihub

S. Dagron, SDG 3: Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Better Well-Being for All at All Ages, in: The Cambridge Handbook of the sustainable Development Goals and International Law, 2022, p. 95-116

G. R. Gupta et al, Gender equality and gender norms: framing the opportunities for health, The Lancet 2019; 393:2550-62, https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2819%2930651-8

I. Kickbusch, The need for a European Strategy on Global Health, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 2006, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/14034940600973059

J. P. Koplan et all, Towards a common definition of global health, The Lancet 2009, 1993-1995, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9905260/

J. Mann et al., Health and human rights, in: Health and Human Rights Vol.1, n°1, Fall 1994, p. 6-23, file:///C:/Users/dagron/Downloads/1HealthHumRts6.pdf

M. Marmot, Achieving health equity: from root causes to fair outcomes, The Lancet 2007; 370:1153-63, https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2807%2961385-3

B. Pratt 2023, A multidimensional account of social justice for global health research, Bioethics 2023; 37:624-636, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bioe.13186

J. P. Ruger, Social justice as a foundation for democracy and health, BMJ 2020; 371, https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4049

C. Stephens, R. Willis, C. Church, Environmental Justice and Health, International Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2008, Vol. 2, pp. 373-382

UNDP, Environmental Justice: Securing Our Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, 2022, https://www.undp.org/rolhr/justice/environmental-justice

US Institute of Medicine, America‘s Vital Interest in Global Health: Protecting our People, Enhancing our Economy, and Advancing our international Interests, 1997

D. Wernli et al., Moving global health forward in academic institutions, Journal of Global Health, 2016 Vol. 6 N° 1, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4766794/pdf/jogh-06-010409.pdf

WHO collaborating Center Global Consultation on Equity Models for a Pandemic Agreement in support of the WHO and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, Advancing a World Together Equitably, 2023, https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/P7_ONL_Pandemic_Equity_Models_-1.pdf